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Article: A guide to AS results 2017

AS Levels have changed this year. Well, some of them have.

You can learn about the changes here.
(edited 7 years ago)

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I'm still very confused about the consequences of not having UMS anymore.
Reply 2
Avatar for Fox Corner
Fox Corner
OP
21
Original post by Abstract_Prism
I'm still very confused about the consequences of not having UMS anymore.


So are we - @The Learn Ranger has been in contact with Ofqual to try and get some sense on it. Stay tuned and we might be able to get some info on UMS straight from them...
Reply 3
Avatar for aamirac
aamirac
20
For those that haven't got an AS grade, an internal exam takes place instead and that will be the grade used to determine if you stay on the course or not and your predicted grade.
Though when it comes to applying to unis, I know some of them like UCL don't require AS results due to the linear change. But if you have them, they will consider it as usual. (I asked an admissions tutor at the open day)
Original post by Abstract_Prism
I'm still very confused about the consequences of not having UMS anymore.


By my knowledge, it'll work in the same way as the current (Edexcel) GCSE maths does.

The examiners will set the boundaries for the units involved using raw marks and add them together to create the overall boundary for each subject each year. This will change year-upon-year and so having UMS will just add an unnecessary calculation for them to do that really now is redundant.

UMS was only useful because it functioned as a way to standardise the AS and A2 marks and allow them to be combined together to give one overall grade. Now that we don't have AS levels contributing to A2s, raw marks can just be used instead.**
Original post by kingaaran
By my knowledge, it'll work in the same way as the current (Edexcel) GCSE maths does.

The examiners will set the boundaries for the units involved using raw marks and add them together to create the overall boundary for each subject each year. This will change year-upon-year and so having UMS will just add an unnecessary calculation for them to do that really now is redundant.

UMS was only useful because it functioned as a way to standardise the AS and A2 marks and allow them to be combined together to give one overall grade. Now that we don't have AS levels contributing to A2s, raw marks can just be used instead.**


But that doesn't make sense because AS units contribute 40% to the overall A-level grade, and A2 60%. AS and A2 are weighted differently. So won't you need UMS to match them up?

Also UMS was a convenient means for universities to compare grades and marks across different exam boards. How will universities do that now? Surely they don't have the time to analyse the difficulty of each paper for each unit for each exam board?

And I'd like to know what's going to become of Cambridge's Supplementary Application Questionnaire, which relied to UMS.
Original post by Abstract_Prism
But that doesn't make sense because AS units contribute 40% to the overall A-level grade, and A2 60%. AS and A2 are weighted differently. So won't you need UMS to match them up?

Also UMS was a convenient means for universities to compare grades and marks across different exam boards. How will universities do that now? Surely they don't have the time to analyse the difficulty of each paper for each unit for each exam board?

And I'd like to know what's going to become of Cambridge's Supplementary Application Questionnaire, which relied to UMS.


No whatever grade you get in AS will not contribute to A2, as far as I'm concerned. You will sit separate exams in your A2 year which will alone contribute to your grade, allowing examiners to set raw grade boundaries that they can simply add together without the inconvenience of needing to set up their UMS formulas too.

Most unis don't look at UMS; they look at grades.

As for Cambridge, I'm sure they can set up their own entrance exams to replace this removed aspect to their selection process.


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(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by kingaaran
No whatever grade you get in AS will not contribute to A2, as far as I'm concerned. You will sit separate exams in your A2 year which will alone contribute to your grade, allowing examiners to set raw grade boundaries that they can simply add together without the inconvenience of needing to set up their UMS formulas too.


In Year 12 you might sit 2 exams for your AS. Yes, this will result in a standalone AS qualification.

However, in Year 13 you might have to sit, say, 4 exams. Two of these will be on AS content. Two of these will be on A2 content. And the ones on AS content are only worth 40%, and the A2's are worth 60%.

I don't know how that's going to work without UMS.
Original post by Abstract_Prism
In Year 12 you might sit 2 exams for your AS. Yes, this will result in a standalone AS qualification.

However, in Year 13 you might have to sit, say, 4 exams. Two of these will be on AS content. Two of these will be on A2 content. And the ones on AS content are only worth 40%, and the A2's are worth 60%.

I don't know how that's going to work without UMS.


Well take physics, for example, all the A2 modules (including the AS one) are equally weighted. This makes not having UMS easy.

But the marks could easily work otherwise by having it out of say 300 raw marks and having 60 of those come from one exam, 100 from another, etc.. That accounts for the different weighting :smile:



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Original post by Abstract_Prism
In Year 12 you might sit 2 exams for your AS. Yes, this will result in a standalone AS qualification.

However, in Year 13 you might have to sit, say, 4 exams. Two of these will be on AS content. Two of these will be on A2 content. And the ones on AS content are only worth 40%, and the A2's are worth 60%.

I don't know how that's going to work without UMS.


For the reformed A levels, AS and A2 are 'decoupled' - A level is a totally
separate qualification with all the assessment at the end of the course and at A-level standard.

Ofqual think there is no need for UMS in this context as the primary aim of UMS was to enable AS and A2 results to be aggregated and this is no longer happening.
Original post by The Learn Ranger
For the reformed A levels, AS and A2 are 'decoupled' - A level is a totally
separate qualification with all the assessment at the end of the course and at A-level standard.

Ofqual think there is no need for UMS in this context as the primary aim of UMS was to enable AS and A2 results to be aggregated and this is no longer happening.


Right, I get that.

I think the only thing that I don't understand now is how A* grades will be calculated. Will you still have to get a certain score in A2 units, or will there just be an overall threshold like there was for GCSE?
Original post by Abstract_Prism
Right, I get that.

I think the only thing that I don't understand now is how A* grades will be calculated. Will you still have to get a certain score in A2 units, or will there just be an overall threshold like there was for GCSE?


Probably best not to think of new A-levels in terms of AS/A2 - all the units are of A-level standard.

A*s will be awarded to students getting over a certain number of marks - 'the threshold' as you put it. So A* will be decided like other A-level grades, there is no expectation (at the moment) that students will have to score a certain number of marks in any module.
@Abstract_Prism I'd also like to add that AS content exams for A2 are different to the AS exams.

Some are longer and/or are structured differently.
Reply 13
Avatar for Ziaskia
Ziaskia
So when applying for university will AS results still be considered as highly?
Original post by Ziaskia
So when applying for university will AS results still be considered as highly?


If you have them, then most probably, yes


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I'm confused about what we'll see on our results sheet due to no UMS, is it just the grade? or do we see our raw marks as well?
Original post by drinktheoceans
I'm confused about what we'll see on our results sheet due to no UMS, is it just the grade? or do we see our raw marks as well?


Just the grade. No module results.


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Fuming that AS doesn't count for art, in a way i can understand other subjects and it isn't that much of a deal because you can just revise the same content again next year but omfg you're telling me that i spent so many hours of my life, all nighters so much bloody work and it doesn't even count.
oh and oh yeh how exactly are we meant to get A* now? previously the A* was decided by if you got really high UMS at AS but obviously that isn't going to work anymore :nothing:
Original post by drinktheoceans
I'm confused about what we'll see on our results sheet due to no UMS, is it just the grade? or do we see our raw marks as well?


For OCR at least (and probably the other boards), you'll see your overall mark and grade.
Original post by Salamandastron
Fuming that AS doesn't count for art, in a way i can understand other subjects and it isn't that much of a deal because you can just revise the same content again next year but omfg you're telling me that i spent so many hours of my life, all nighters so much bloody work and it doesn't even count.
oh and oh yeh how exactly are we meant to get A* now? previously the A* was decided by if you got really high UMS at AS but obviously that isn't going to work anymore :nothing:


You say you're fuming that it doesn't count. But surely you were already aware that it wouldn't count for anything at the beginning of the course? If not, it's your school or college that's at fault here.

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